Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Hello Crafty Friends! The Gecko Galz will be giving away digi stamps every month on our member blogs. Each Design Team member will have a featured artist day on the Gecko Galz Blog. All you have to do is follow the link to that designer's blog and grab your free digi stamp. Have fun!

While you're here, please take a moment to see the cards I created using the Gecko Galz new August products! There were so many awesome kit club images this month, and I printed out lots of amazing files I had hoped to use. As ambitious as my intentions were, let's just say it wasn't a very good month for me as far as finding the time to craft. I'm sure I'll sneak more projects in somewhere, I had so many great ideas. Meanwhile be sure and visit the Gecko Galz blog every day for inspiration and to see what the rest of the team created with the amazing images!

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Welcome Crafty Friends! It's time for a new Gecko Galz Customer Challenge! Please join us for the current challenge "Life is a Circus" from August 1st - August 29th. There is only one rule. You need to use at least ONE product from Gecko Galz. It can be one of the free products, stamps, collage images, or digital background papers. The winner will receive a $25 Gecko Galz shopping spree!

Don't forget to stop by the Gecko Galz blog to see what the rest of the team created this month. On the first of each month the blog features samples created by the team for the customer challenge. We hope to inspire you to enter and win! Then, throughout the month, the blog features samples created by the team using the new products for that month. On each member's feature day, you can follow the link to their blog and collect a free digital stamp. I will be giving away a digital stamp on my blog on August 4th., so please come back to pick up your free stamp and to see what else I've created using the new August products including collage sheets, icons, digi stamps, and backgrounds.To create my card, I began with a black card base, and added plain yellow card stock on top of the base. I added a black and white diamond patterned paper that I had in my stash to the bottom of the card. I printed out the colorful diamond pattern paper (at 5 x 7) from the Life is a Circus digital paper pack, and fussy cut around some of the diamond pattern before adding it to the card base. Next, I printed out the clown lady from the Clowning Around jewel-its, and I sized her at 5 x 7. I positioned her to go off the edge slightly at the bottom, the top, and the side. I printed out the man clown face from the Circus Time digital stamp set, and adhered to the other side. I found the admit one ticket and the quote on Pinterest. Thanks for looking!

Ok crafty friends, so I don't generally post personal stuff on my blog, but the month of July was most definitely not life as usual. I thought I might explain why I've virtually disappeared from my blog and all social media. First of all, my pet boarding business went insanely crazy busy! I'm so exhausted I'm tripping myself! More importantly, I'd like to say a few words about my beautiful kitty boy Oliver. He has been very ill, was hospitalized for 4 days, and has made many trips back and forth to specialty hospitals. He has more doctors than I do! His doctors include an internist and an oncologist. We began the journey back in mid May with a really bad episode of Pancreatitis which almost killed him. Following the test for pancreatitis, and a diagnosis, things progressed and he got worse. We did x-rays, ultrasound, endoscopy, biopsy, and it all led to a cancer diagnosis.

For the two years prior, Oliver was in stage two of kidney disease, so were already treading on thin ice before all this happened, trying to manage the kidney disease and keep it from progressing. Let me make a long story short....the kidney disease spiked rapidly, going from stage two of the disease to stage four kidney failure. With lots of care, the kidney values have gone down, and so far seem to be settling in stage three. I'm hoping that as general health improves the kidney disease will improve and settle back into stage two status.

Oliver is on chemotherapy, and is being tube fed to get his weight and strength back. The trips to the vet are time consuming (it's 35 miles), and the multiple medications and tube feedings just about have me stretched to my limits. No matter how I manage his and my schedule, I'm only left with four hours to sleep at best. Basically, I'm too tired to create, it's just not in me right now. No inspiration, no mojo. I hope that as things settle down in my boarding facility, maybe I'll get my mojo back!

Here's my boy, all proudly displaying his feeding tube! The tube is the only way his life could be saved while the chemotherapy drugs do their thing, it's been a blessing.

Top Three winner in January 2015

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About Me

I Love animals and I own a pet boarding facility called Shelby's Eden for boarding of cats and small breed dogs. My facility was named after my beloved cat Shelby who passed away in January of 2008.
I love making scrapbook mini albums especially for the clients of my boarding facility. I also love papercrafting of all kinds with a vintage or shabby chic theme. I will soon have a line of greeting cards available on etsy. Other passions include reading, (mostly young adult fantasy fiction or biographies about musicians), Cooking whole plant based vegan foods, and I love many types of music especially old school soul and Motown, and todays pop and R&B.